Top Pa. GOP senator orders change in election integrity plan

HARRISBURG — The top Republican in Pennsylvania’s state Senate said Friday that he is putting a different senator in charge of an “election integrity” undertaking and removing a senator who had aimed to carry out an Arizona-style “forensic investigation” of Pennsylvania’s 2020 presidential election.

Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman said he had had “many frustrations” with state Sen. Doug Mastriano, who last month sent letters to Philadelphia and York and Tioga counties with a sweeping request for access to documents, information and equipment, under threat of a subpoena.

Corman said Mastriano issued those letters without getting approval from the Republican caucus and “scared off” the counties, which effectively refused to cooperate. Mastriano’s attention to the logistics and legalities of the broad undertaking also was lacking, Corman said.

Mastriano has spread former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims that the election was rigged against him.

Instead, Corman said he asked Sen. Cris Dush, R-Bradford, to take over the caucus’ election integrity venture.

However, Dush has been aligned with Mastriano.

In June, Dush and Mastriano both traveled to Phoenix to see the Arizona state Senate GOP’s widely discredited and partisan audit of the 2020 election.

Dush, like Mastriano, has said he wants something similar carried out in Pennsylvania. Corman said he would not rule out such a project in Pennsylvania.